Venezuela Announces Whitepaper and Pre-Sale of Its Oil-Backed Cryptocurrency Petro

Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro has announced the pre-sale of his country’s national oil-backed cryptocurrency, the petro. In addition, he has presented and signed the official petro’s whitepaper and unveiled the Petro Container for mining the new currency.

Pre-Sale of Petro

During the meeting of the council of ministers on Tuesday, Maduro announced that the pre-sale of Venezuela’s national cryptocurrency, the petro, will begin on February 20.

Meeting where Maduro announced the pre-sale of the petro.

“We have reached the future. Venezuela advances as an economic power,” the president remarked, specifying that the petro pre-sale will be “through ERC20 tokens.” He further asserted:

Venezuela is at the forefront of the world, and we are going to accelerate permanently the start-up of the cryptocurrency, the petro.

Maduro Presented Petro Whitepaper

Alongside announcing the pre-sale of the petro, Maduro also presented and signed the cryptocurrency’s whitepaper which details “the functions, vision, and conditions” of the petro, he described.

Maduro presented and signed the petro whitepaper.

However, despite many Venezuelans asking on social media for access to it, the petro whitepaper has not been released to the public at the time of this writing.

Prior to this official petro whitepaper announcement, some media outlets reported on a supposedly leaked petro whitepaper. However, the Maduro government has denied the authenticity of that document.

Introducing Petro Container

At the Tuesday meeting, Maduro also announced his intention to “accelerate the entry into the operation of el petro cryptocurrency and mining farms through the Petro Container,” which he unveiled at that time.

Maduro announced the Petro Container. Photos and illustration of what the Petro Container looks like outside and inside.

He then suggested, “All the savings banks in the country can have their mining farms and participate in el petro.”

Maduro’s Hopes of the Petro

Venezuela first announced the creation of the petro in early December. Maduro soon installed Carlos Vargas as the Superintendent of Cryptocurrencies. He then assigned over 5 billion barrels of crude oil to back the new currency and announced the issue of 100 million units.

However, the Venezuelan National Assembly soon declared the petro illegal and cannot be backed by oil. Undeterred, the president proceeded to convince 10 other countries to join in on the petro project as well as offering discounts of up to 60% to early petro investors.

At the Tuesday meeting, Maduro claimed:

We have received very auspicious comments from experts in cryptocurrencies around the world.